Skip to content
Menu
Justin Ball
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
Justin Ball

Haulin’ Balls

Posted on June 2, 2012October 25, 2021

We’re driving across the California desert right now. The thermometer says it’s 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Every time we have to stop and get out of the car the kids tell me the heat is “hurting them”. Pioneer children they are not. The biggest dilemma facing us as we cross the long, arid, punishing desert is the lack of 3G coverage, not being able to figure out the entertainment system in the car and the missing states in the license plate game. We have a lot of 1st world problems.

The trek from home to Southern California is a trip I dread since I’m not a fan of driving all day. However, this trip Callie has been kind enough to do most of the driving. I’ve spent most of the time sitting, working on the computer so it’s not that different than what I do every other day except that the scenery is changing. The South West has a stark beauty and is fascinating in its color and expanse.

Life’s really hard, but we’re driving a new car.

I don’t deliberately plan on buying a new car right before we go to Disneyland, but for some reason it’s happened each time we’ve gone. When I was in grade school they showed us these movies with some guy is crossing the desert. His car breaks down. He walks through the desert. Then he dies. They showed us a lot of movies like that where people died in the desert. I’m from Idaho so the risk of dying in a vast desert was remote possibility. I’m not sure why they wasted a bunch of classroom time with survival videos or why I never went to counseling to get over the ‘issues’ that result (there are more) but subconsciously I must be thinking I’m going to die crossing the desert so I buy a new car. Maybe Honda subsidized the videos.

When I buy a new car I usually drive a lot of sales guys crazy with a million emails and negotiating.. I don’t visit the showroom since we always buy the same thing. We are nothing if not predictable. If I do die crossing the desert put “predictable to the end on my headstone”.

It kills me to blow a huge wad of cash on a mini-van. When I was a kid (I’m old) a Ferrari 308 cost the same that I spend on a minivan. Nothing brings a guy closer to the brink of mid life crisis than to know that the car you dreamed about as a kid has been substituted by a minivan.

At least I can say that ours hauls Balls.

Specifically, I need to haul five of them plus my wife and I. It takes a lot of room to haul seven Balls. A Ferrari doesn’t haul 7 Balls. A minivan does. I guess that makes the minivan a manlier vehicle than the sports car. To prove it, even thought it’s sometimes embarrassing I show off my five Balls.

One is usually crying. It’s humiliating to show off a crying Ball. Too often, several are missing which is a frustrating but frequent problem for a guy like me. I’ve almost always yelled at one or two Balls and so they shrunken away and are sulking. Yelling at Balls isn’t very manly. My littlest Ball is pretty cute and laughs a lot. My wife is usually holding him so he doesn’t get lost so he’s easy to show off. Everyone thinks he’s really cute and he flirts with random strangers in the store. He’s a funny Ball.

Right now we’re haulin’ Balls to Disneyland. True, the speed limit drops to 60mph in the middle of nowhere for no good reason (maybe the cactus here are different?)., but that won’t stop us from haulin Balls. I’ve finally conquered the DVD player so even though there’s no Internet here in the middle of no where the Balls can watch a movie. That keeps them happy. I hate 12 hours trapped in the car but every few years we make the pilgrimage to the Happiest Place on Earth because we love our Balls.

Maybe when I die instead of “predictable” they can write that:

Here lies a man who loved his Balls.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Posts

  • Around and Back to WordPress
  • Last Lagoon (This Year)
  • Logan Sunset
  • Grami Del
  • FanX (and Lagoon)

Recent Comments

  1. jquery ajax readystate 0 responsetext status 0 statustext error – w3toppers.com on jqXHR Returning Readystate 0 and Status 0?
  2. Change MySQL default character set to UTF-8 in my.cnf? on Upgrade to MySQL 5.5.12 and now MySQL won’t start
  3. Around and Back to WordPress – Justin Ball on Gatsby 2.0 and Forestry
  4. More Stuff You Shouldn’t Hit on a Bike – Justin Ball on Why Cyclists Shave Their Legs. The Most Disgusting Post I Will Ever Make
  5. First Real Ride on the New Trek Madone 6.9 – Justin Ball on Rode Blacksmith Fork Canyon Tonight

Archives

  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • January 2020
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • June 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005

Categories

  • 2.3.2
  • 3g
  • 3tera
  • 420
  • 51weeks
  • 64bit
  • accessibility
  • ActionView::MissingTemplate
  • activemerchant
  • ActiveRecord
  • activesalesforce
  • acts as taggable
  • acts_as_facebook_user
  • acts_as_nested_set
  • acts_as_state_machine
  • advertising
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • air quality
  • ajax
  • Alyssa
  • ama
  • amazon
  • amazon s3
  • amazon wishlist
  • amazon.com
  • ancestry
  • animal cookies
  • antshares
  • apache
  • API
  • apis
  • apollo
  • apollo client
  • apple
  • Apple Store
  • Apple Time Capsule
  • application
  • applications
  • Art
  • ASP.Net
  • assert_sent_email
  • asyncronous processing
  • Atomic Jolt
  • Aubrey
  • Authentication
  • authorize.net
  • Autumn
  • babelphish
  • back problems
  • backbone.js
  • backup software
  • backups
  • bacon
  • Battlestar Galactica
  • big companies
  • birthday.
  • bitcoin
  • black cherry vanilla coke
  • Black Smith Fork Canyon
  • blockchain
  • blog
  • Blogging
  • bluehost
  • books
  • BoomStartup
  • bread
  • buddypress
  • bug
  • bugs
  • business
  • business. mother's animal cookies
  • cache county
  • cache valley
  • California
  • Cancun
  • canvas
  • capistrano
  • Catholic Church
  • cereal
  • chauvet obey 40
  • checkbox list
  • checkboxes
  • chess
  • Chicago
  • china
  • chocolate
  • Christmas
  • Chrome
  • church
  • Cinderella
  • Cisco
  • cloud computing
  • cms
  • code generation
  • code sprint
  • coke
  • Comcast
  • commerce
  • Common Lisp
  • communities
  • Community
  • complex
  • Computers
  • conference
  • conference software
  • configuration
  • consulting
  • cookies
  • cooking
  • COSL
  • cosmos
  • count
  • courts
  • cows
  • create
  • creative commons
  • cryptocurrencies
  • cryptography
  • css animations
  • cucumber
  • currency
  • Cycling
  • database
  • dataloader
  • date
  • death
  • death ray
  • debugging
  • decentralized applications
  • dell dimension 8400
  • democray
  • deployment
  • developing
  • development
  • Devin
  • diet
  • digg
  • Digital Ocean
  • digital-photography
  • disease
  • disguise
  • disgusting
  • disney
  • disneyland
  • DiSo
  • disposable
  • DMX
  • Docker
  • domain name
  • domains
  • doom
  • dr strangelove
  • driving
  • Dryers
  • DVI
  • ec2
  • economics
  • economy
  • ecto
  • edge rails
  • Education
  • EFF
  • Egypt
  • ElasticSearch
  • elastra
  • elections
  • elixir
  • email
  • Ember
  • Ember.js
  • encoding
  • energy
  • engine yard
  • engines testing
  • engineyard
  • enterprise
  • epp
  • error
  • errors
  • ethereum
  • Event Machine
  • expercom
  • facebook
  • failure
  • Family
  • family history
  • family reunion
  • family search
  • family trip
  • Family Vacation
  • familysearch
  • familysearch.org
  • farmers market
  • fashion
  • fences
  • field trip
  • file uploads
  • Firebase
  • fireeagle
  • fix
  • flat tax
  • flowers
  • folksonomy
  • food
  • France iPad Internet access
  • free book
  • freedom
  • friendfeed
  • friends
  • fuel
  • Fun Stuff
  • funeral
  • Funny
  • funny kids
  • gadgets
  • galleries
  • gamenight
  • garden
  • gardens
  • garter snake
  • gatsby
  • gatsbyjs
  • gearsynper
  • geek
  • gelatin
  • gem
  • gems
  • gems ruby on rails
  • genealogy
  • genius
  • geocaching
  • geotagging
  • girl's camp
  • gistr
  • git
  • github
  • global
  • gmail
  • godaddy
  • Goliath
  • Google
  • google bomb
  • google docs
  • google hacks
  • Gorden B Hinckley
  • government
  • gps
  • grand master
  • grand-teton-national-park
  • graph ql
  • graphcool
  • graphql
  • graphqlsummit
  • great firewall
  • grocery
  • gross
  • group work
  • HABTM
  • Hacks
  • halloween
  • happy
  • has and belongs to many
  • has_many
  • hashgraph
  • Hawaii
  • health
  • health insurance
  • heirachy
  • Heirarchies
  • helps
  • Heroku
  • Holiday
  • home building
  • home improvement
  • home plans
  • homebrew
  • homework
  • hosting
  • house plans
  • House Stuff
  • housing
  • human rights
  • hyperledger
  • i18n
  • ice cream
  • icls2008
  • idaho
  • ideas
  • identity
  • identity_theft
  • iiw2006b
  • image
  • image processing
  • inbox
  • induglences
  • insane
  • inspiration
  • install
  • Instructure
  • Interesting
  • internet
  • Internet Explorer
  • InvalidAuthenticityToken
  • iPhone
  • jackson-hole
  • jamis buck
  • Javascript
  • JavaScript (Programming Language)
  • Javscript
  • Jenna
  • jeweler
  • jobs
  • joyent
  • jQuery
  • jungle disk
  • jurlp
  • justin ball
  • kids
  • knowledge workers
  • lambad
  • laptop case
  • launchup.org
  • lds
  • LDS church
  • learning
  • legal
  • Lego
  • legos
  • leopard
  • lesson
  • Levi Leipheimer
  • Liahona
  • library
  • life
  • lifestream
  • Links
  • litecoin
  • LMS
  • loans
  • localization
  • logan
  • Logan Canyon
  • logistics
  • logitech
  • LTI
  • lucene
  • lucene.net
  • Lucifer
  • luvfoo
  • mac
  • Mac OSX 10.6
  • Mac Ports
  • macbook
  • macbook pro
  • Maker
  • Maker Faire
  • manage
  • marginal changes
  • marion
  • marriage
  • Matt Mullenweg
  • me
  • medicine
  • Meetings
  • merb
  • Mexico
  • micro-blogging
  • microcontent
  • microformats
  • Microsoft
  • Middle East
  • migrations
  • mom
  • money
  • Monitor
  • morph
  • morph exchange
  • morphexchange
  • mortgage
  • mosso
  • motorcycle
  • mountain biking
  • Mountain West Javascript
  • Mountain West Ruby
  • mountain west ruby conference
  • mountainwestrubyconf
  • mozy
  • MRI
  • mtnwestrubyconf
  • muck
  • multi-user
  • music
  • mwjs
  • mwrc
  • mysql
  • mysql gem
  • MYTecC
  • Neat Stuff
  • neighbors
  • newgem
  • No Programming
  • node.js
  • nuclear weapons
  • nutcracker
  • Oahu
  • Oauth
  • oauth-plugin
  • Obama
  • Obie Fernandez
  • OER
  • OER Glue
  • olympic torch
  • olympics
  • omniauth
  • Open Assessments
  • open source
  • OpenContent
  • opened2007
  • OpenID
  • opensocial
  • optimism
  • ordered tree
  • oreos
  • osx
  • outdoors
  • outsourcing
  • ozmozr
  • pain
  • panasonic plasma
  • Paris
  • password recovery
  • payday lenders
  • paypal
  • pety
  • PGP
  • Phil Windley
  • photography
  • photoJAR
  • photos
  • php
  • pickle soup
  • pickup
  • piclens
  • Pictures
  • plasma tv
  • Playa Del Carmen
  • plugin
  • plugins
  • poinsettia
  • Political
  • politics
  • portablecontacts
  • PostGreSQL
  • PostGresSQL
  • poverty
  • privacy
  • problems
  • product: web
  • professional
  • Programming
  • Projects
  • prophet
  • protect_from_forgery
  • protests
  • prototype
  • psych
  • psychology
  • queue
  • rails
  • rails 2.0
  • rails conference
  • Rails I18n Textmate bundle
  • RailsConf
  • RailsConf07
  • rake
  • rant
  • react
  • react router
  • React.js
  • Reactive
  • reactjs
  • reactrouter
  • realestate
  • recipe
  • recommender
  • records
  • red green
  • redirect_to
  • regular expressions
  • relay
  • religion
  • render
  • replace
  • reputation
  • require.js
  • research
  • REST
  • restaurant
  • rFacebook
  • ridiculous
  • rightscale
  • ringside networks
  • river
  • river trail
  • robots
  • romantic
  • roomba
  • rpsec
  • rspec
  • rspec bundle
  • rss
  • ruby
  • Ruby On Rails
  • Ruby On Railst
  • ruby_on_rails
  • rvm
  • s3
  • sad
  • Salesforce
  • samsung ml1740
  • sarah sample
  • scalability
  • School
  • Science
  • scorm
  • scream
  • script.aculo.us
  • SDK
  • search
  • senate
  • SEO
  • serverless
  • servers
  • sessions
  • shopping
  • shortcodes
  • shoulda
  • sign language
  • simple
  • small business
  • snakes
  • Snelgrove
  • social graph
  • social media
  • social network dilution
  • social networking
  • social search
  • Social Software
  • socialsoftware
  • society2.0
  • soda
  • software
  • software design
  • Software Development
  • solidity
  • solo
  • soviet union
  • sovrin
  • sql
  • sql server
  • SQL Server 2005 Express
  • sql server 2008 express
  • starling
  • start ups
  • startups
  • starvation
  • stm bags
  • stm medium alley
  • storage
  • subversion
  • target
  • tax
  • Teachers Without Borders
  • tech
  • teeth whitening
  • template not foudn
  • templates
  • test-spec
  • testing
  • tests
  • textmate
  • thanksgiving point
  • The Japanese Mafia is controlling the weather
  • The Kids
  • The Plan Collection
  • The Web
  • theming skin
  • theplancollection
  • theplancollection.com
  • time
  • timr
  • tips
  • to_json
  • tools
  • Tour de France
  • transfer
  • translations
  • Travel
  • Travel, Disneyland, LA
  • trees
  • trip
  • truffles
  • tutorial
  • tutorials
  • tv
  • twitter
  • Uncategorized
  • uninsured
  • universe
  • unpack
  • unread
  • upgrades
  • uploader
  • uploads
  • user discovery
  • user interface
  • userfly
  • utah
  • utah government
  • utah senate
  • utf8
  • Vacation
  • values
  • vinegar
  • virtual hosts
  • walmart
  • warranty
  • Waste of Time
  • weather
  • Web
  • web design
  • web development
  • Web RTC
  • Web2.0
  • web2con2006
  • webservices
  • weddings
  • Wesley Connell
  • whereigo
  • wife
  • windows
  • Wired
  • wishlist
  • with
  • word press
  • Wordpress
  • work
  • workling
  • wpmu
  • xml
  • yeast
  • yellowstone
  • zentest
©2025 Justin Ball | Powered by SuperbThemes & WordPress